Artist draws NPR stars based on their voices

Artist Gaelan Kelly’s “How the NPR voices look in my head” blog post from early summer was such a hit that he did a follow-up in September that included sketches of “Click and Clack,” Steve Inskeep, Diane Rehm and other NPRers. Kelly told readers:

It’s probably no surprise to anybody that after I had finished with the drawings I needed to go online to find the correct spelling and fill in the names. This was (for the most part) the first time I actually saw what these NPR personalities really looked like. Turns out their photos are all over NPR.org, huh, who knew?

With the possible exception of Terry Gross, I think I may have come closest to capturing what Ira Glass looks like in reality. I can hear his thick framed glasses and tall lanky frame through my ear-buds.

I also sent the artist a few questions. He told me:

My contact with the actual NPR personalities has been pretty limited aside from seeing my work promoted on their various program’s websites. Which I take as a ringing endorsement! Those that have responded have mostly done so through Twitter and have said nice things, Peter Sagal sharing it with Steve Inskeep was pretty great. The one that really made my day however was Bob Edwards who left me a comment on my site in response to my post: “I was not retiring. I have hot retired. I likely never will.” Beautiful.

So far I haven’t offered prints because I can’t see other people wanting my interpretations of the NPR voices. Everyone has their own mental image, which in my opinion is kinda the fun of it. But that said, if Terry Gross or Click & Clack or any of the others wanted a print I would certainly do it!

What kind of traffic is he getting from social media? “There is a lot of activity from Facebook and Twitter though… G+? Eh, not so much.”